NBA Execs Compare Cooper Flagg To Tatum, Kawhi, Pippen

Cooper Flagg is the consensus top prospect in the 2025 NBA draft and ESPN spoke with a number of executives and scouts who came up with five comparisons in Jayson Tatum, Kawhi Leonard, Lamar Odom, Scottie Pippen and Andrei Kirilenko. Flagg is already an elite defensive player with an excellent natural feel for the game, but there are concerns about his upside as a superstar offensive hub.

“Both of them at Duke presented really positively as guys that were going to have a couple of off-ramps to be super successful,” said a Western Conference executive about the Tatum comparison. “We’re seeing that with Flagg recently, he’s had poor shooting nights like against [Alabama in the Elite Eight], and still was super impactful [toward] winning. … People questioned both of their shots, which turned out to be a silly concern, probably. They both have really good feel offensively in a way that’s just uncommon for their size and usage.”

“I say Scottie because he could have been a No. 1 guy, and was after MJ left [Chicago], but he became by far the best No. 2,” said an Eastern Conference general manager. “I think Cooper will be a hell of a No. 2, but he might need a top 10 [player] running mate with him. He can obviously prove me wrong, but I don’t see him as a No. 1 guy on a championship team in his career.”

Leonard had a remarkable developmental arc as a scorer as he entered the NBA with the expectation he would be more of an impact player on defense.

“[Flagg]’s really good defensively and can be a game changer on that end pretty much immediately with his size, effort and IQ,” said a scout. “He’s always been a very good defender and the offense is coming along. It’s a very similar path to the one Kawhi was on early in his NBA career, as a guy who had all these really useful qualities, and then entered as a real two-way force as he rounded out his game.” –